Fangirls in Wonderland
by CHAOS REIGNS OVER ALL
Summary: They find themselves in the Dresden World, unprepared for this new role. One is a crazy person with a sword, the other hears helpful voices in her head. Craziness insues. Then there's the prophesy, and some crazy rabid fangirls. Non-Mary Sue!
1. Down the Rabbit Hole

This is not actual written by me, it is written by a friend of mine, with her and me as the main character, and i am a girl in this fanfic. She says it makes more sense, i know better then to ask. And no, i don't own Dresden files, and neither does she. And no, i don't spend my whole time doing this, but i am a nerd, and proud of it, and not all my friends are girls thank you very much.

My friend and I aren't nerds…well okay maybe we are, since the reason everything started was that we were discussing the political structure of the white court vampires while trying to find our way back to the bus stop. We'd spent the day in Kirkland indulging in our favorite hobby of trying to make people miss their lights. We'd been pretty successful, us:5 cars:2,and were trying to take a shortcut. It wasn't working out.

"All right…I have never been here before…maybe it was the next street?" I was talking to myself but that's never stopped anyone from answering me before.

"No I we might have started from the wrong street. None of these addresses look right."

"This is ridiculous!" I snarled " How many times have we taken this shortcut? Clearly the only explanation is that the street has moved. We must find it and discipline it…oooh puppy" I get distracted easily…

"Hmmm?"Sam turned from where she had been examining street signs "that's a big puppy!"

"I know! Isn't he cute?" I was gushing, I'm not proud of it but I was, dogs have that effect on me "He kinda looks like Mouse doesn't…" I trailed off. The dog had raised his head when I said Mouse. Sam and I exchanged a look.

"Hey! Mouse! Here Mouse, come here boy." I was calling before I had time to think about it. Before I had time to feel silly the dog had gotten up and was padding over. Sam and I looked at each other again. Then I looked at where he'd been lying.

"It's a basement apartment…" Another look. "Should we knock?" It was a rhetorical question, we both knew that we were going to knock, we owed it to every fan of the series. We could not just walk away from this basement apartment with the dog named Mouse. Her nod was all I needed, I swallowed hard and stepped forward. _There's no way that Harry Dresden lives here you know._ I ignored the little voice in my head that was vainly attempting to make me see reason. Reason is stupid. We headed down the stairs to the door and then knocked. The knock chimed faintly like the door was made of metal, at this point even the voice in my head admitted that this was a crazy coincidence. _But if this was THE Dresden's house then shouldn't his wards have vaporized you?_ "Spoilsport" I muttered under my breath.

We heard someone shuffling around behind the door and I suddenly decided that it wouldn't have hurt to think this through a little more, but it was too late. The door slowly opened and the man who answered peered out.

"Who are you?" he asked. I considered lying and saying we were door-to-door bible sales people but my stupid mouth decided to take matters into it's metaphorical hands.

"Are you Harry Dresden?" Smooth, I mentally cursed myself. Just then I heard a cat yowl from inside.

"Mister Shut up! I'll feed you in a minute" he turned back to me "Sorry. Yes I am, if you were looking to…" he trailed off. Probably because Sam and I were staring at him like two kids who had just met the Easter bunny.

"Omigod! You are!" Both of us shouted at the same time. Fangirl reflexes took over at that point and both of us hugged him. This was a bad idea. I came to this conclusion while flying through the air just before slamming into the building across the way. I shook my head clear and found myself face to face with a blasting rod. I tried to focus, difficult when you have two sides of your brain screaming mutually exclusive sentences over and over. The smart half was focusing on the fact that we were about to die unless we could explain ourselves with little branches trying to figure out why he was attacking me. Couldn't he have picked Sam? The other half was amazed that not only was Dresden real but I got to meet him! Wheeee! _Focus! Pretend he hurt you bad! That'll distract him and maybe we can get away!_ I was surprised, the voices in my head aren't usually that helpful. But, it was a good plan so I let my eyes fill with tears.

"I-I-I'm sorry. I'm a big fan, an-and I was so excited to finally meet you" He started to lower the blasting rod and I checked on Sam she seemed to have figured out the plan.

"We're really sorry. W-We saw your ad and decided to see if you were the same as in the books. We" her voice broke, I was impressed. "we just wanted to meet you…" Dresden had lowered the blasting rod and was looking confused.

"What books?" he asked warily


	2. Alternate Universe

Right now you're probably thinking what a jerk I am, but in my defense it's not every day that I get hugged by incredibly powerful mages dressed like colorblind ren fair rejects. I took a defensive stance with my blasting rod pointed at the one who'd spoken first. She seemed pretty dazed but when she looked up her eyes filled with tears.

"I-I-I'm sorry. I'm a big fan, an-and I was so excited to finally meet you" Ow. My conscience. That-wait, did she say fan? I don't have fans, I have people who aren't trying to kill me. How would I even get-my train of thought was derailed when the other girl started talking.

"We're really sorry. W-We saw your ad and decided to see if you were the same as in the books. We" her voice broke. "we just wanted to meet you…" I was confused as hell right now, all of a sudden I had fans? And there were books about someone like me?

"what books?" Yep, you can tell I'm a private eye, the way I ask those hardboiled questions that cut right to the heart of the matter. Now the girls looked confused. The green eyed girl started talking again "What do you mean what books? The Dresden Files! They're all about you and how you defeat evil! You have to know about them!"

"Hey. Are we in Chicago?" the red haired girl asked "cause if we're in Chicago I bet I know why you've never heard of the books."

"Of course you're in Chicago! Where did you think you were?"

"Kirkland." She stood up slowly and went over to her friend. "That's where we were a minute ago. And thus I have a theory."

"Oh really? Why don't you share it with the class?" I was definitely starting to get creeped out here.

"Well this must be an alternate dimension. And we must have accidently gotten transported here." I would have felt better if she had seemed upset, but both she and her friend were eerily calm. Would it really be so hard for the universe to make my life make sense?

"right. And I suppose everyone in your universe wears clothes like that?" I nodded towards their outfits.

"Uh no, this is actually…well we were playing make the cars miss their light and it helps to wear something…eccentric." the green eyed girl explained. I was just about to ask what the hell she was talking about when my phone rang. That was not a good sign no one who knows my number tries to call me except in an emergency, they know that wizards play merry hell with technology.

"Stay right there. I need to get that." I glared at them for emphasis and turned into my house. "Hello?"

"Dresden!" Oh crap. It was Captain Luccio. This was definitely not good "We have a…situation. There's two people we need to find and evidence that they're in your city. I'm on my way now but I need you to start looking. Unfortunately all I can tell you about them is that they will have some books titled The Dresden Files. I know it's not much to go on but they need to be found!" I might have been more stunned if someone had hit me with a frying pan, maybe, but I had come to expect blows to the head the past couple of years, this was just bizarre.

"Actually Captain, I think I already have." stunned silence "well actually they found me. Two girls knocked on my door and started talking about The Dresden Files and how I was the main character and…" I trailed off

"Excellent! Don't let them run off, I should arrive soon and then I'll be able to take them off your hands" she didn't wait for a response before hanging up. Okay then… I thought to myself. I went back outside and was surprised to find them still there.

"there's something weird going on around here and I have no idea what it is." I announced "some people are coming who want to talk with you and maybe they can figure it out, until then would you like to come in?" I didn't wait for their answer before going back inside. At least no one was hitting me yet.


	3. Knight of the Freakin' Cross

The voices in my head were not happy. _You idiot! The plan was distract him, then RUN. Not stand around waiting for him to come back out and _definitely _not to go into his house!_ I had decided to ignore it, because well, it was listen to the voice in my head or take the chance to explore THE Dresden's house. The choice just kind of makes itself. I was trying to find the door to his workroom so that I could meet Bob, I wasn't going to ask when the poor man was already freaked out by our knowledge of his life…okay, not really, I just wanted to see if I could find it on my own. Dresden was sitting on his couch wearing a bemused look and Sam had gone to check out the ice box briefly. I was getting really into the search when Sam must have come back and gone straight to the weapon, my back was turned so all I heard was Dresden saying "ah, wait don't touch…" I turned around just in time to be blinded by the flash of white light accompanied by an angelic chorus.

"Shiny" Sam and I spoke simultaneously.

"…the hell?" Dresden was still trying to figure out what to do "ummm okay. That light? That was God offering you a job. You don't have to take it, but if you can you should."

Sam wasn't listening "I'm a Knight of the freakin' Cross! Sweet!" She struck a pose. "I gotta go find bad guys to hit!"

I coughed "Uh Sam? I don't think that's how it wor-"

"Not listening"

"Fine. Where do you plan to find these bad guys of which you speak?"

"oh. ummmm…curse you Reason! You always spoil my fun."

"Yeah plans'll do that." Good at least she was thinking now. There's a reason we call her chaos and it has to do with why I was just a little terrified about letting her wander the streets with a holy sword. Lets just say, bad things would happen.

"Are you people listening to me?" Dresden was trying to get our attention

"Uh, no actually we weren't" Sam's not big on tact "What is it?"

"I was saying that we need to go talk to Michael. Sam, your friend called you?"she nodded "All right. We have to wait for Captain Luccio, then we need to go see Michael. And" he turned to me "I still don't know your name." Crap on a cracker! How had we forgotten to introduce ourselves?

"My names Claire. Sorry about that."

"Not a problem. Luccio said she was on her way." just then the doorbell rang and he massaged his temples "that's probably her. Just a second" he went to the door, I briefly considered making a run for it. I was not interested in dealing with the council I glanced over at Sam who had her new sword out and pointing at the door. It's good to have friends who think like you do but-_should I make her put that away?_ If the voices were gonna get louder then they had to help decide things. _No, the knights aren't under the council's sway and it won't hurt to make them aware that she is one._ Cool, I might never have to think again. _focus!_ Oh right, Wardens and the council and we weren't supposed to be here, guess I did have to think.

"Ivy? What are you doing here?"Sweet we got to meet Ivy too! This was the best day ever.

"I need to speak with the girls you found." Well that was direct.

"That would be us." I stepped forward "but I thought Dresden said the wardens wanted to talk to us?"

"We do" Luccio stepped forward "but Ivy is here to help explain."

"You know we have the books?" I waited for their nod "then you know why we might not be interested in talking to you."

"Will you talk with me?" Ivy looked up at us. It's so not fair for her to be that cute! Saying no would be like kicking a puppy and I like puppies.

"Sure" there might have been a better plan but I didn't really care. My fan girl half had hijacked my brain and we were not going to lose the chance to talk

with Ivy.

"Dresden, won't you invite us in?"

"Right, yes, yes I will won't you come in?" I almost felt bad for him. On the other hand this was nothing compared to what he normally deals with. The group filed inside with Kincaid in the back. I wasn't sure how I felt about him being there…on the one hand he is really cool, on the other I really didn't want to mess with the scary, scary man. If you thought he sounded scary when you just read about him I'm here to say that's nothing to actually meeting him, he looked like death, seriously I wanted to hand him a scythe just to complete the image.

"ahem" Ivy cleared her throat "if you have finished examining my bodyguard I could begin my explanation."

"Sure. That sounds great." Must pay attention! I turned to Sam "uh, you gonna put that away anytime soon?"

"Knight. Of. The. Cross. I am not done staring at my new shiny weapon yet"

"Okaaay then, not a problem. You do know that you'll have to put it away eventually?" the glare she gave me could have melted plastic. Fortunately I am not made of plastic. We were getting weird looks again, lucky for us we were immune to them.


	4. Arguments and Prophesies

Rules for Stop-the-traffic

Rule Number one: whatever you wear or carry MUST NOT MATCH ANYTHING ELSE YOU HAVE ON. This is very important. Also it helps if you have a newspaper or a video game.

The way you play is you find an intersection, preferably one with really long red lights then you stand there or sit if there's a place and read or play your game like you're waiting for some one. Hopefully you get one person who stares at you. Once you have identified this person watch the lights out of the corner of your eye and just before it changes lock eyes with the driver. After the light changes sweep into a bow or curtsy depending on what you're wearing. You win if they miss the light they win if they make it through. Bonus points for making them run a red light and even more bonus points if they get a ticket. If that happens you should probably be somewhere else though. Funny hats are recommended and you should wear anything you would normally never wear outside. The more eye-catching the better.

NOTE: The ultimate plan for this game is to have enough people playing to cause major traffic jams. Then we can demand that our favorite authors write more. Also we can demand that the TV producers start The Dresden Files TV show up again. So get out there and cause havoc!

I've figured out what's going on. Every one has gone insane and they decided to drag me along with them. Now I just need the why and I can get them all some professional help. Ivy had been explaining about this prophecy that I had never heard of but apparently referred to these kids-or so we were assuming since trans-dimensional portals rarely happen for no reason and when she finally got around to saying what the actual prophecy was, well

"Isn't that The Second Coming?" Sam asked, her green eyes confused.

"The first part of the prophecy was preserved by William Butler Yeats in the form of his poem "The Second Coming" yes" I couldn't tell if Ivy was impressed that Sam had known the poem or annoyed at being interrupted. "now may I finish?" Guess she was annoyed then.

"By all means" Sam replied graciously

"Thank you" Ivy actually sounded acidic. I was impressed, she hardly ever shows emotion. "Anyway, the first section is the same as the poem. However, in order to prevent the prophecy becoming widely known the last lines were replaced with the lines you would know. In it's entirety the prophecy reads" her eyes glazed over and she sat straighter "Turning and turning in the widening gyre/The falcon cannot hear the falconer;/Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;/Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world/The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere /The ceremony of innocence is drowned; /The best lack all conviction, while the worst /Are full of passionate intensity./One shall rise from Chaos/To write the ancient wrong/The other from reason/and they shall be the strong." Not the most pleasant prophecy ever, I could see why the council had concealed this from the general public. It basically foretold their fall. And two teenage girls were there to…

"So, ummm, what exactly are we supposed to do?" Claire clearly had no experience with prophecy if she was expecting clarity. "So the falconer would be the council. Right? That means that the wizards are the falcon. Things fall apart is easy everyone gets out of control and the center-probably still the council-cannot hold. Clearly even "mere" anarchy is bad and a tide of innocence drowning blood-even in metaphor-is even worse but are we supposed to stop it?" Okay, maybe I was wrong, She was just confused because the rest of the prophecy made perfect sense to her.

" 'Cause if stopping it means propping up the council we have no time to waste, since we're _about_ to waste a giant chunk of it. The prophecy even says the center _cannot_ hold…"

"What if we make a new center?" Sam chimed in "call the falcon to a new home and prevent the anarchy when the current center falls." Apparently they spoke in metaphors. That tallied with my other observations of these two actually.

"If the point is to thwart the prophecy would it be so very hard to go that extra mile and thwart it completely?" I'd completely forgotten about the Captain and now she was upset. Not good, not good at all.

"Actually yes it would. _Not _a fan of the council. But also there's a leak to the Black council, right? Give me one good reason why I should save something that's not only all ready falling but has one or more people helping it along from inside." I'd already decided that Sam was the one who rose from chaos.

"Because there's a war on! We can't afford to have faith in the council shaken. If you tried to create another governing body the Red Court vampires would roll over you before you chose new officers!"

"Who said we'd choose new officers?" Claire entered the argument "the officers are fine. It's the higher-ups that we're worried about. In fact the whole thing would be less of an overthrow of the council and more of a re-founding"

"that's not the point! If you didn't choose new officers then you'd have to earn the trust of the existing officers!"

"And the first thing we'd tell them to do would be cease defensive action and launch a freakin' assault! _You_ know that there's no way to win this as a defensive war, and that the Council is never going to order you differently!" Claire took a deep breath and continued more calmly "Besides we'd keep anybody we felt we could trust from the old council. Of course even then we wouldn't expect you to help. You're very passionate about your job." I saw that last bit drive home as the Captain sucked in a breath.

"I have to go." She stood up suddenly "we've rented a hotel in town and will be staying a couple of days. You clearly have business to take care of but we will be back tomorrow" she cast a glance at the sword Sam had been admiring throughout the conversation "see you then" she walked out quickly followed by Ivy and Kincaid.

"Did you just win an argument with Captain Luccio?" I turned to look at Claire

"Looks like I did doesn't it?" she smiled thinly. I shook my head

"Anyway we should probably go see Micheal" I glanced at the clock "he should be getting home soon"


	5. Bag 'o Props

I felt pretty bad about implying the captain was one of the bad guys, but honestly? She was gonna be a problem if we had to take down the council. I went to rub my eyes and remembered just in time that I had my contacts in so I settled for growling.

"What?" Sam asked turning to look at me from the front seat.

"Nothing. My contacts are making my eyes itch and I think we left our bag o' props in our universe." That would be a problem actually since that was where I kept my wallet too.

"No we didn't." Sam shook her head "I had it with me but I left it at Dresden's house." Rabid monkey farts! Well at least we had it around. Maybe Charity would have eye drops.

"so is that why you have purple eyes? Colored contacts?" Sharp man that Dresden, doesn't miss a beat.

"Yeah. My real eyes are brown, and that's just boring"

"Plus I suppose oddly colored eyes help this game you and your friend play?"

"um, yeah" I did not want to discuss Stop-the-traffic with Dresden, I had a feeling he wouldn't approve. Lucky for me he didn't ask any more questions and we arrived a Micheal's house shortly afterward. Now all I had to worry about was getting introduced to yet another of my personal hero's previously considered fictional. And I should probably keep Sam from screaming about murder. I continued musing all the way up to the door which swung open to reveal-_OMG that must be Molly!_ My instant assessment was confirmed by Dresden a second later.

"Hey Molly. I need to talk with your dad. Is he home?"

"Not yet. What do you need to…" she trailed off as she caught sight of the sword-finally sheathed-that Sam was clutching "oh. Someone got chosen by the sword?"

"Yeah, so I need to tell Micheal about it. Can we come in?"

"Of course. I'll go get my mom. You can go sit in the living room." Dresden was obviously not overjoyed at the thought of a conversation with Charity but he resigned himself to it fairly quickly. I was bracing myself for her reaction to our outfits and trying to figure out a way to get out of having to explain the game.

"What is it this time Dresden?" Charity did not sound happy.

"Complicated." she glared at him. How could she expect him to pass up that one-liner? "Seriously though, these two girls" he gestured at us "are main players in a prophecy and one of them has taken up Shiro's sword. I don't really know what the procedure for new Knights is so I came here to talk with Micheal."

"Is that so?" Her eyes narrowed as they swept over our clothes. "and why exactly are you dressed like that?" she was good. I felt myself blushing even as I dropped my eyes.

"it's uh it's-Performance art!" Yeah that'd work. "When we have free time we go and find the weirdest clothes we can. Then we wander the city and act out scenes from plays as an expression of…"

"The harmless impulses society so harshly suppresses" Good thing Sam thinks the same way I do. "we bring into question the deeply rooted assumption that eccentricity makes you crazy. We like to think we've changed quite a few people's world view."

"And you didn't have time to change after finding the sword?" I didn't think she was buying it. Pity, I thought it was pretty inspired. I managed a gloomy expression.

"Actually Ma'am, we couldn't. We live in an alternate universe, and when we were transported here all we had with us was a bag full of props for the plays we had been performing. We don't have any other clothes." She looked shocked, that was a good sign right?

"Really?" When had Molly showed up? "That's so cool! An alternate universe…what's it like there?"

"Pretty much the same as this one except you guys are all characters in a series of books." I was almost sure there was a more tactful way of putting that. But, you know, whatever. They'd deal with it or not, and either way I hadn't written the books.

"Never mind that." Charity snapped "You can have some of Molly's old clothes until you get a chance to get something less…expressive." My relief was mirrored in Sam's face neither of us had been looking forward to meeting Micheal dressed like ren fair rejects. "Molly, would you get that box we were going to donate?" Molly grumbled a little but went anyway. Continuing our amazing streak of good luck Molly's clothes fit great, plus we had just finished changing when we heard Micheal's car pull up.


	6. Slaying Evildoers 101

Finally! I could hand these nut jobs off to someone who might have a clue what to do about them. They had started a fight with Luccio, who had backed down and now they'd lied to Charity and gotten away with it. Admittedly except for the stutter at the beginning it was a very good lie. Still, Charity had a especially good Liedar, she must have known they were lying and I couldn't believe she hadn't called them on it. Maybe she felt bad for the kids, I know I did, it couldn't have been easy suddenly finding yourself a universe away from everything you knew and loved. They did seem to be handling it well though, while I explained things to Micheal they had struck up a conversation with Molly, I didn't catch what they were talking about but it was a pretty energetic discussion.

"All right" Micheal said calmly. "Sam? I need to talk with you for a bit. I'd like to explain a little more about that sword and what being a Knight is about, okay?"

"Fine by me" her friend looked jealous "all I really know about it is that I picked it up and the world went shiny. It was kinda trippy" Molly choked on a laugh and Micheal just nodded and led her into the kitchen.

"hmph" yeah, Claire was jealous "fine. While she's in Slaying Evildoers 101 I will ask the burning question" she turned to look at me "Will we ever get to meet Bob?" See that kind of thing is just creepy, I keep forgetting that in their world my life is, literally, an open book.

"I guess so" they already knew what he was like, at least, they should. Maybe I should warn them anyway. "He can be a little…"

"I know! He's so cool! So we can? When?" her ability to switch into squealing fangirl mode at the drop of a hat was making me give serious consideration to the theory that she had multiple personalities. All of them insane.

"How about after we meet the Captain again?" she made a face, I was getting the impression that she was not a fan of the council or anyone working for them. I spared a minute to hope that saving the council wasn't necessary for thwarting the prophecy, and not just because I wouldn't mind if they weren't around to ruin anymore kids lives. But…could these kids really create another governing body? Should they? The council had existed for thousands of years it wasn't surprising that it had started to fray, but was creating a new one the right answer? I personally liked the idea, take the things that went wrong with the first council and fix them in the second, I just couldn't imagine it getting put into practice, especially by the girl in front of me, who was currently jumping up and down and squealing. That would not inspire confidence in the wizards, _oh, by the way, your new leader? She starts squealing with joy at the thought of meeting a talking skull. _That would be a major stumbling blo-I suddenly realized that I was already starting to plan strategy for the, what did she call it? Right, the re-founding of the council. I was getting _way_ ahead of myself, especially since Luccio would probably convince them to help the council tomorrow. The girls self confidence was infectious, but I should know better. But Claire's argument had made so much sense, I wanted to believe her. I wondered if that's what the prophecy meant by rising from reason. The abilty to convince anyone you were right. I decided to keep my theories to myself for now, no teenager should know that they can win every argument they want to.

"By the way, Mrs. Carpenter? Do you have eye drops I could borrow? My contacts are really starting to bug me…"

"Of course. Wait just a minute." she was back quickly

"thank you very much ma'am." Claire tilted her head back and quickly administered the drops

"Not a problem" Charity was staring at her. "Excuse me if this is rude but…do you have anywhere your staying?" Claire looked shocked.

"No…I hadn't thought of that actually..." For the first time since I met her she actually looked surprised by something. It was kind of sad actually, she was fine with the fact that she was in an alternate universe, excited that she was part of a prophecy and completely floored by the fact that she hadn't thought about where she would be staying.

"All right then. You'll stay with us" Charity's tone brooked no argument.

"I-would that be all right?"

"Of course, sweetie, don't worry about it. I'll go set up the guest bedroom. It's got two beds if you and your friend don't mind sharing?"

"No, we don't mind. But I can at least help set up, I don't want to impose more than necessary." She stood up then paused. "Um, one thing though…my contact stuff is at Dresden's house…" I didn't get a Mr.? Ah well, it looked like her situation had finally sunk in and she was no longer coping very well. I supposed I could let it go and help her out.

"That's not a problem." Now it was my turn to stand up "I can run and go get your bag of props right now"

"Thank you so much." The relief in her voice was thick enough to cut so after a quick stop by the kitchen to ask Sam where she'd put the bag I was out the door and on my way back home.


	7. Coffee and Facey Things

Sooo tired. I was doing great until just before Dresden got back. I'd just finished helping Charity set the guest room up when the world did a barrel roll and my feet left the floor. _By the way, it's probably a good idea to rest now. _Stupid voices.

"Claire? Are you all right?" Charity looked worried; I should tell her I was just tired.

"Hnnng…" Well. I'm sure that made her feel better. What was going on? Charity told me not to move and left. I couldn't focus my thoughts enough to guess where she was going. _You used magic today and now you're exhausted because you've never done it before._ What? I would have noticed if I'd done magic. The voice was talkin' nonsense now. _Idiot, you got transported into another dimension! Did you think that just happened on its own?_ There was a rational argument against that… and it was… Sam! Sam wasn't passing out, at least I didn't think she was. There was the impression of a sigh _the portal took some of both your energies to create. You'd be fine now if you hadn't argued with the captain. That happens to be one of your abilities, you can convince people that your argument makes sense. And-_it cut off the forming rebuttal _you don't have control over it yet. Which means you use more power than is necessary. _Oh, reason is a superpower now? It didn't matter. I really just wanted to sleep. I'd worry about a prophesied super-power later, for now I needed to get my contacts out. Somehow. I tried to stand up and succeeded in almost passing out. I concluded that that was a bad plan, but before I could come up with another one Charity came back with Sam and Michael who picked me up and set me on the nearest bed. That was nice of him. I drifted off shortly after he left, I heard Charity and Sam talking but the words didn't make sense, then I knew nothing until the next morning, when I knew blinding pain! The headache started to fade almost immediately but I had a feeling it would remain a nuisance all day.

"GOOOOD MORNING!" I was going to kill her. She needed to die. Just as soon as I could see through the pain…there she was.

"I kill you now!"

"Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed." Yep. I was going to murder her painfully. "Well, I have something I bet will cheer you up."

"I didn't end up sleeping in my contacts?"

"Well, yes. But that's not the good news." dramatic pause "Michael's going to teach us how to fight! And I got coffee, which is the only reason I'm even functioning at this point. But we'll do the fighting thing later."

"Someone was actually dumb enough to give you coffee after you slept", I asked, looking with horror at my overly hyper friend.

"Yep. Right now you need to get ready, Dresden will be here to pick us up any minute now so we can talk with Captain Luccio", she said happily.

"Oh. Joy. Confrontation, exactly what I needed."

"Shut up and change." She threw a change of clothes at me. I had slept in the ones Charity had given me yesterday.

"Fine. Now shoo fly." she stuck her tongue out at me as she left and I used the brief moment of quiet to gather my thoughts. Reasonable argument or not I didn't think Captain Luccio was going to support the destroy the council plan. Well, that was her problem, my problem was that she would probably try to prevent us from implementing it. Well, that, and finding people who would support us , but I wasn't going to think about the logical flaws in my plan right now. Not even the gaping ones. I finished changing, considered putting my contacts in and rejected them in favor of glasses, and wandered downstairs just in time to hear the doorbell ring. Since I was the closest to the door I opened it revealing Dresden.

"Good morning Claire. Are you feeling any better?"

"Yeah, I'd be a hundred percent if it wasn't for the headache."

"Good. Captain Luccio arranged to meet at a café near the lake so we can head out whenever you two are ready."

"We can go now." Sam had snuck up behind me. "Ow! Claire, that was my face!" She really should know better than that. I ignored her whining about how she uses that face for…facey things and turned back to Dresden.

"Yeah we can. Just let me tell Mrs. Carpenter." I took care of that quickly and headed out to his car. I got the front seat this time, realizing as I buckled my seatbelt how out of it I must have been last night not to process that I got to ride in the Blue Beetle that was no longer very blue. _Have you decided what you'll do if the Captain decides to have you arrested? _Actually I had. I was going to run. Very fast. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that.


	8. Chloroformed

We didn't have to go far, although the Beetle broke down once we still managed to arrive before Captain Luccio. We got seats at the café and settled in to wait for her, I personally voted for saying we'd shown up and left when she wasn't there but Dresden said we had to wait and he had the driver's license. We hadn't been there long when he excused himself to go to the men's room leaving us at the table to discuss Sam's new weapon.

"So, did he give you a huge talk on responsibility?"

"Not really. It was more of an undercurrent in everything else he said. He talked a lot about the things I couldn't use the sword for. That was pretty much everything." She rolled her eyes "I have to warn people that I'm about to kill them now."

"That always seemed pretty impractical to me." A thought suddenly occurred to me. "Do you remember what it's called?"

"I didn't, but Michael told me. It's Fidelacchius." Good to know. The only thing a remembered about the swords names was that they all ended with -acchius. Sam patted the duffle she carried it in affectionately and we continued talking, always coming back to the fact that this might possibly be the coolest thing that had ever happened to us, when I heard footsteps behind me. Thinking it was the Captain I turned around to be civil and got a face full of stinky cloth. I can't claim to immediately have known it was chloroform since I had never smelled chloroform before, but I did reach that conclusion very quickly as I started to lose my grip on consciousness. I heard Sam thrash briefly just before I blacked out.

I woke to, surprisingly enough, a fairly well lit room it would have been very comfortable if my previous memories hadn't included chloroform and the kidnapping thing. This led me to decide that no matter how nice your surroundings are post-kidnap they still seem foreboding. Now, where the hell were-I checked to make sure Sam was there before finishing that thought, yep, there she was-we? That was a good question. So good in fact that I decided to share it with the world.

"Where are we?" I was trying to think about what I knew of the Dresden-verse and what could have been after us. None of the thoughts were happy ones.

"Don't know." Sam is always so helpful. "But I think we're in trouble." Observant too. "Fidelacchius is gone."

"Well." Words escaped me. So instead of talking I wandered over to the door. It didn't open. Go figure. I needed a new plan. Maybe I could argue that they should let us go…_only if they're human. You'd have to know what you were doing to affect non-humans. _I wondered when exactly the stupid voice had been planning to explain what I could do, then realized that we'd been in this universe for all of a day and a half. Still that meant I couldn't reason my way out, Sam didn't have her sword and I knew jack squat about hand to hand combat. Not even considering that whoever had captured us was probably faster and stronger than me.

"What are our assets?"

"Well…" She dug in her pockets "They didn't find this." she dangled a beautifully worked silver cross from her fingers and I blessed her odd habit of keeping it in her pocket instead of wearing it.

"That will help. Maybe." if I recalled correctly she had inherited it from her aunt "if we've been captured by werewolves or vampires. Either way it's the best we got, so keep it hidden until we know if we can use it."

"Duh! I always wanted a reason to use this," then she rolled her eyes as she pocketed the necklace. Just as she did there was a clatter from outside causing both of us to about jump out of our skin. The door opened revealing what appeared to be a middle aged man who quickly stepped inside and allowed the door to close. Hopefully he was here to explain things and not in a threatening way. Yeah that was so going to happen.

"I'm sure you are both wondering what is going on." he spoke soothingly, "I am dreadfully sorry about the unorthodox way we arranged your visit but we didn't think Dresden would allow you to come without a fight and my lord felt it was important to speak with you as soon as possible."

"And he wanted to speak with us why?" I spoke at the same time Sam said "And your lord is who?"

"He is no one you would have heard of. He was once a vassal of Ortega and rose to power after the untimely death of that worthy." Sam and I both smiled, remembering that passage, and because we at least knew what we were facing now. "As for why he wishes to speak with you, I'm sure you are aware we are at war with the council." he waited for our nod then continued.

"We had obtained information about the prophecy that you both feature in. Since there is no defined role for you within the prophecy, my lord believes you could turn your hand to toppling the White council if you wished. If you would agree to speak peacefully with him he would like to speak with you about the potential of a partnership."

This raised so many possibilities I couldn't even count them all, if I could get out of here maybe we could get Sam's sword. Then we could fight our way out. I looked at her and saw similar thoughts on her face.

"We'll talk" I hoped he wouldn't notice that I hadn't promised…

"Excellent."

Sweet! "This way then." he led us out of the room and through several corridors." Hopefully the sword would be visible somewhere or that I could somehow reason my way out of this, stupid vampires...


	9. Pointy McFang

Ok, in this chapter i quote Monty Python and i get to beat up on red court vamps, can we talk about a dream or what? I wish this really happened...i am such a nerd

Lots of twisty corridors later…we arrived at what could only be called a throne room. The throne was occupied by the vampire I had decided to refer to as Pointy McFang, at least until someone told me his real name. He wasn't terribly imposing and

I had already decided that he wasn't very bright. Smart kidnappers make sure their subordinates won't settle for anything less than a promise to do no harm before releasing captives. _How did he manage to rise to power anyway? _Voice didn't approve of him either, enough to comment on it. Interesting, but I was scanning the room looking for the duffel bag, there! Right next to his throne.

This guy was an idiot; I was almost going to feel bad about killing him, almost. Sam had one hand in her pocket, and turned to look at me, I nodded slightly and she drew out her necklace and unleashed a wave of beautiful white light, the power of faith.

Both vampires recoiled with screams and I made a run for the bag, I grabbed it and threw it one handed towards Sam noting as I did so that Pointy Mcfang had a rapier at his hip. _It wouldn't be my first choice…_I ignored that and punched Pointy hard in his face, what there was of it. He rocked backward and I lunged for the sword managing to catch the hilt just as he pulled back.

I heard sounds of fighting from behind me as Pointy started shouting for help. I didn't even think, I drove the sword through his throat and danced back. He seemed pissed but he didn't fall, at least he wasn't shouting anymore. I heard feet hitting the floor and slipped into a defensive stance as if from a distance I heard Sam fighting the middle aged vampire.

"I'll rip out your throat for that!" he snarled

"Yeah, well your mom has a ripped out throat!" oh goody we were going to go the highbrow route with the taunting. Even as I thought that she adopted a French accent "You son of a silly person!" Pointy had retreated and I backed away to help Sam with the guards I had heard arriving. As I matched my blade against the first vampire everything started to fade. I was no longer in the throne room; I was fighting in an open field, watching the eddy and flow of battle even as I fenced with my opponent.

As if from far away I heard Sam shouting "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries you sons of a window dresser!" Sam had a medal in creative Monty Python quoting. It didn't matter, all that mattered was the clash of steel, the feel of sword on flesh and the fight with…I paused and nearly missed a parry. It didn't matter who I was fighting, only that they were the enemy. In the distance my companion was shouting.

"Go and boil your bottoms, sons of a silly person. I fart in your general direction." the stream of insults never paused "You wipers of other peoples bottoms. I blow my nose at you." Suddenly she was next to me and there was a door behind both. I kicked it open without looking and trusted my companion to watch my back as I turned to scan the hall behind. It was a wonderful feeling, I knew she would know what to do and let me focus on finding a way out.

There was a flash of light from behind me and the door slammed shut.

"That should give us a little breathing room" I wished we hadn't had to flee the field of battle. But we had been out numbered, there was no other course available, I had a duty to keep my companion safe. I couldn't risk her life simply to glory in battle.

Her words sunk in slowly and in a detached corner of my mind I wondered at the fact that I didn't feel even slightly winded, even as we moved forward at a jog. Mostly I focused on the trail ahead, for now there were no enemies but I didn't know the terrain, there could be any number of ways for the enemy to circle around behind us.

The same corner of my mind was amazed at how easily strategy came, it was a minor distraction and I adjusted my plans to compensate. I heard her breathing start to become labored and slowed my pace slightly. Up ahead I saw what looked like an exit and swung into it without a second thought.

The trail I had been seeing wavered replaced with a hallway opening into a foyer. I set a course straight for the big doors in the opposite wall, shoving them open with one hand provoking the corner of my mind that wasn't enraptured by the fight and subsequent flight into a small wave of astonishment.

I ignored that and kept running, there was someone I had to find. But where was I? A glance about didn't reveal any familiar landmarks so I picked a turning at random. We would get away from any possible pursuit first then…I stopped dead as I saw a familiar car barreling down the road. It pulled to a screeching stop in front of me, the person I needed to find got out and the world jerked.

"Are you all right?" Dresden asked, probably because I had suddenly doubled over and was now gasping for breath. Sam was doing the same beside me.

"I think my lungs are cramping!" I had never run that far so fast. I didn't even know how to use a sword beyond pointy end go in other guy. But I had held my own with vampires and not even felt winded until…what had happened? The last thing that was clear was grabbing for the sword then it was all a blur. Michael had climbed out of the car and was helping Sam in; it took me a minute to realize I was already inside.

By then the car was moving, the two men in front weren't talking presumably because they figured questions could wait until we could breathe. I decided that it was time to have a long talk with the voice in my head, what I could remember of the fight was images of a long ago battle field superimposed over the room we actually fought in. I had a suspicion that those were some of Voices memories, and as I reflected on the battle I realized that I had a better name for him.

_"So, Arthur. You want to tell me what happened back there?"_ I surprised him by knowing his name. That was good; I needed the upper hand for this conversation. There was a throat clearing noise.

_"I am sorry for that. You would have done more harm than good with a weapon you couldn't use. I took over and I got a little carried away."_ I remembered the sheer glorious thrill of battle, how it had felt to meet a swing in mid-air and hear the clash of the two swords.

_"Can't really blame you for that." _he felt relieved _"and I even understand why you didn't tell me who you were. However, I think that as soon as we get some time you'd better explain exactly what you are doing in my head."_ I felt his assent _"we'll do that a little later though." _the pain in my lungs had faded and I yawned. Sam was already asleep. _"I can't guarantee I'd retain anything you said right now…"_ Then, lulled by the gentle hum of the engine, I drifted off to sleep.


	10. Confusion with the Captain

By now I had accepted that confused was a constant state around these two. This though, I had no idea what to make of it. I had left the bathroom to see them being loaded into a car by guy's in suits, called Michael and took off in pursuit. In the time it took for me to meet with Michael and create an attack plan they had somehow managed to fight their way out. I actually felt kind of inadequate, they hadn't even needed to blow something up. I glanced into the back seat and saw they had both fallen asleep. Not surprising since the house they had been taken to belonged to one of the red court vampires, I didn't know why he'd kidnapped them but I was hoping it had to do with the prophecy. Mostly because if it didn't that meant it was my fault and I hate it when things are my fault.

"I don't believe it." Saying it out loud didn't help. How had they managed to fight their way out of a red court vampires house? Claire had been holding a sword so they clearly hadn't just run off under the cover Sam's sword provided. I would have to wait for them to wake up and ask them, meanwhile I needed a plan to avoid the captain without pissing her off further. She had not been happy to arrive to find that me and the girls were gone, or so I assumed. I hadn't actually talked with her yet having decided to rescue the girls first.

"Hmm." Michael was thinking about something. "It is amazing that they made it out on their own, but it is good to see that they have the strength to do it." He had a point. Not many people knew about the prophecy, but the ones that did were all going to want the girls to make it go their way. It was too bad the prophecy hadn't defined their role a little more, the way it was now all anyone knew was that they had arrived to do something. Sam was supposed to right the ancient wrong but who knew what that was supposed to be? And Claire didn't even get that much, she was just "strong". Judging from the lack of obvious injuries I figured that "strong" referred to physical strength but there was no real way to know from the phrasing.

A short while later we arrived at Michaels house and put the girls to bed. I said my good byes and headed home expecting to find an irate Captain waiting for me. I wasn't very far off. I started talking almost before I got out of the car.

"I'msorryweweren'tthere. SomeonehadkidnappedthegirlsandIwentafterthem, everythingsfinenow." her irritated expression switched to one of confusion, which had been my goal when I started talking that fast. "Right now they're at Michaels resting. It might be best to put off the talk until tomorrow."

"Actually, I need to talk with you too, and we may as well do that now." Lovely. Captain Luccio needed to talk with me. Maybe I'm just paranoid because of the years I had a warden following me ready to kill me if I so much as breathed wrong but I really don't enjoy hearing those words.

"Alright." I went to my door and opened it after taking my wards down. "Won't you come in?" I tried to think of what she might want to talk with me about, and suppressed a surge of fear when I realized she knew how I felt about the council. If she thought I'd support them…it could end badly. She went immediately to my couch so I took the armchair.

She got right to the point. "As much as it pains me to admit this, Claire is right. There is no way to support the council as long as people within it are corrupt. The thing I don't think they understand is the politics involved, there is no way to smoothly take over the governing of the worlds wizards. Most of whom still believe in the council, by the way. Not to mention the chaos while you try to figure out which members you can trust, they would have to be able to win the trust of the officers and soldiers, and lead them while they investigated the corruption."

"So, why are you telling me this? Shouldn't you be convincing the girls?"

"I will speak to them as soon as they are done resting, but I think that they will be more willing to listen to objections if you voice them. In their world they were clearly fans of The Dresden Files and they seem to trust you. We can talk about that later though right now I want to know about this kidnapping."

I took the time to fill her in on what we knew had happened and promised to give her more details once I'd asked the girls what had happened. After I finished we arranged another place and time to meet and she took herself off. Leaving me to think about what she'd said. It was strange, it seemed like she wasn't going to oppose a plan to bring down the council as long as they could create a new governing body in it's place. Her biggest problem was that she didn't think they could do that. I always thought Captain Luccio would be the type to stick by the council no matter what, but now she'd practically told me she tentatively supported the girls plan. What did she know about the council that I didn't? was it really that shaky? I shook my head, I wouldn't worry about it for now. For now I was going to think of some quick and dirty magic I could teach the girls to protect themselves with. This would require creativity and skill, or maybe I'd just buy them both some mace, that would be much easier. I'd talk with Bob real quick then head over to Michaels house and check on them.


	11. Meeting the King

I woke up for the third time that day, and I had pretty much decided that this magic stuff wasn't all it had cracked up to be. I would have been just as happy if I had just gotten to meet everyone from the Dresdenverse without the magic and the passing out/falling asleep. I hadn't even met everyone yet! Not even close in fact, although the people I was interested in meeting were fewer than the people I just wanted to get close enough to punch, so I supposed that made it easier. Plus at least I knew that the voice in my head was not part of my subconscious-unless my subconscious was prone to inventing elaborate back stories to defend it's creation, while working in pieces of well known legends-the only problem now was deciding if I should tell Michael and Dresden and if I was how to break the news? Neither of them were likely to react well to me walking up and announcing that I was hearing voices in my head. If they believed that said voice was King Arthur they'd relax but first I'd have to convince them.

_"If you can arrange to borrow Michael's sword I think I can arrange something…convincing."_

_"I don't want to be a Knight!" _I might have sounded just a little panicked, I really did not want that sort of responsibility, and I had no idea what the protocol for the long dead owner of one of the swords showing up inside someone's head was. Actually, I couldn't imagine that there was one, this sort of situation couldn't happen very often.

_"Do not worry. I am no longer the bearer of the sword and it will not choose a new one until Michael relinquishes it." _I heaved a sigh of relief. Since I wasn't going to get stuck with the thing I decided that Arthur might as well do his convincing as soon as possible, so I headed downstairs slowly thinking of a good way to get to hold the sword the whole way down. I nodded politely to one of the younger Carpenters, I had never bothered to memorize their names much less who was who, I knew this kid wasn't Molly, or little Harry but that was about as far as my knowledge extended. Michael was in the living room reading when I poked my head in, he looked up and smiled as I came in and I was overcome with a wave of shyness. For someone so nice he was surprisingly intimidating.

"Is your friend still asleep?" I nodded silently, and he looked at me for a moment longer. "Is there something you need?"

"Um." I started cleverly "Mr. Carpenter, I was wondering, in the books your sword is the one mentioned most often, and I was wondering if maybe, I could, it would be really cool if I could…"

"You'd like to see it?" Oh thank God! I wasn't sure I'd have managed to ask without chickening out. I nodded vigorously.

"Yes. I understand if you'd rather not get it out but it would be really cool…" Now I was talking too fast. Curse my poor people skills!

"It wouldn't be a problem. It's out in my workshop if you'd just follow me I'll show you right now." he smiled reassuringly and we headed outside. I hadn't been in the Carpenters backyard but it was everything I expected. I could see the tree house in the distance and the lovely little workshop he'd made. That was the direction we were heading, of course since he'd just said he kept it in his workshop. Once inside he pulled a cloth wrapped bundle down from a high shelf and unwrapped it. The sword-_amoracchius_ Arthur whispered-was beautiful. I reached out with a glance towards Michael and at his nod touched the scabbard lightly. Instantly I was lost in a flood of memories, from the day Arthur had first pulled it from the stone to the day it had been cast into the lake I absorbed Arthur's memories and felt his ache for the days he'd never see again. I moved aside and felt his surprised gratitude as he moved into control. He ran my finger up the scabbard until it reached the hilt where he rested my hand. He'd completely forgotten about convincing anyone of anything but…I couldn't refuse him the only connection he had to his time. He'd been dead for thousands of years, this was the only thing left from his time, I wouldn't deny him this small connection to the people he'd left behind. But, you know? Michaels pretty observant.

"How do you know that sword?" His voice startled both of us. "And more importantly how does that sword know you?" a glance at the sword showed it was glowing faintly. Not the giant neon help wanted sign but a faint pulsing shimmer that felt like a warm hand where it touched mine.

Fortunately Arthur had an explanation all prepared. "Um…" Well, maybe explanation was a little generous, but at least he had a retort!

I was being unfair, he hadn't realized the sword would react unless he asked it to and he had forgotten that he was supposed to have asked it to. Still since he was still lost in his memories and not anything like able to explain I had to think of something.

"Well…I don't really know the sword, but King Arthur knows it rather well. I would imagine it was reacting to the fact that his spirit is inside my head." the last words came out in a rush. I had no idea how Michael was going to react to this, hopefully he'd be cool about it since the sword didn't have a problem with me, but what the hell were you supposed to do when the long dead owner of your magical sword shows up?

My semi-frantic musings were interrupted when Michael spoke. "I see." He was completely calm. He knew what he was supposed to do! "This is an unusual situation, as you are no doubt aware. Do either of you have any idea what to do?" Crap! It would have made life so much easier if Michael had known what to do.

"Not really. But Arthur says that you keep the sword. And I think he's mostly here to provide guidance, and the ability to fight." Michael nodded.

"All right then. We might as well go back inside and wait for Harry to arrive. Would you like something to eat?" My stomach answered that instantly and loudly. Michael laughed and we went inside.


	12. One Upped

"What?!" Not the most original of responses but it summed up my feelings on being told that the kid had King freaking Arthur just rattling around in her head. I spared a moment to be glad that Michael had told me before I went into the living room where she and Sam were talking, she was probably already uncomfortable with it and my reaction would only have made it worse. At least for once it wasn't my life spinning wildly out of control, I paused to wonder if this was what it was like for the people around me when something unusual happened then shook it off and prepared to talk with Claire about the voices in her head.

I should have known she wasn't going to react like a sane person. In everything that happened since I'd met these girls they had yet to react the way I would expect. Still it's a bit much to think that she'd be completely calm about it. No excitement, no fear. The first words out of her mouth were a request to go see Bob, enthusiastically seconded by Sam. They must have seen the look I was giving them.

"We've always known she had voices in her head." Sam rolled her eyes. "Most people? They wouldn't hang out 'cause their parents would ground them unless they did their homework. Her? She wouldn't hang out because the voices in her head would give her a headache until she did her homework."

Claire shrugged sheepishly "They got a lot clearer after we arrived here though. Can we _please _see Bob now?"

"I-uh-sure?" I shook my head. They were insane. I kept forgetting that. "Yeah we can. We can go now if you want." I paused as an idea struck me "I have some questions for Arthur so if I could talk with him on the way I'd appreciate it."

"Of course! That sounds great. We can go now?" they talked over each other and just a little to fast for a minute then Sam's face changed.

"Claire! Did you pack the romance in the prop bag?" Claire smiled toothily and nodded. Sam dived for the bag and pulled out a book. "Has he read this one?" she asked urgently. I didn't recognize the cover so I shook my head. Why did they have a romance in the prop bag? Oh, right, insanity. Whatever, we were back at my house in no time. On the way I asked Arthur about how he ended up in her head and what his position was. Even if Claire didn't care I was a little worried about the whole possession thing, but that might have just been because I don't have a lot of pleasant experiences. It was hard though, whatever else he had been when he was alive Arthur was a leader and everything he said was full of confidence it was easy to see why it might be necessary for the girls to have someone with experience in waging war if they were to get thrown into the middle of budding anarchy. I decided to ask Bob to find out what he could when we went in to the lab.

"Bob. Hey wake up. Some people are here to see you."

He rolled around to look at me "So are these the crazy chicks you were talking about earlier?"

"Yep. He's exactly the same as in the books!" Sam and Claire shared a conspiratorial glance.

"Anyway, we brought you a present." They had apparently decided to forgo introductions. Probably figured I'd already told him all about them. "We brought you a romance."

His eyes brightened. "Really? Is it any good? Can I see?" He really could be just like a little kid sometimes. I stood back as they handed it to him and he read the back cover his eyes brightening even further.

"This is great! You really do know all about us, to have something this awesome!"

"Actually….we just have it as a prop for our…performance art. Part of the way it works is that you look totally normal." Bob's skull nodded.

"Harry told me about that too. Would you explain more about how it works though?" I sighed. Those three were kindred spirits, I'd probably have to forbid him from playing stop-the-traffic next time I let him out of his skull. Unless you couldn't play without a body, that would be nice.

"Well, I have some things to work on." The girls looked up with sad faces "You two can stay here and chat if you want." They nodded and turned back to the conversation. One-upped by a talking skull! Life is not fair.


	13. Fire!

Then they destroyed the council and lived happily ever after.

Okay so not really. But that would have been cool! Seriously here I am King Arthur making strategies in my head talking with a skull as my friend uses her sword to create a trippy light show. Which Michael would probably disapprove of come to think of it. Whatever, the point of this little mini-rant is A) I'm bored, I want to go stab things. B) the council really kinda pisses me off and the sooner we get rid of them the better and hmmm Sam just lit the workroom on fire. How'd she manage that?

"oooh…fire" Ah, because she's a pyro. The sword must have picked up on that. _I always thought the swords were smarter than that…_ frankly so did I. if _I _had been a little smarter I might have been trying to put out the fire but it was really pretty, and, I blinked. It wasn't burning anything.

"Wow." Bob sounded impressed. "That's quite the illusion there. Um, if you don't mind would you tell me why you're creating it?"

We answered at the same time. "Because fire is pretty!"

"Okaaay then…" I quickly changed the subject because I didn't really want the talking skull to inform me that I was insane. He was hardly one to talk! "I'm gonna go see what Dresden is doing." I climbed the stairs quickly. I needed to think because as much fun as it would be to take the council down western style, gathering a posse and charging in with guns blazing, it really wouldn't be practical. So, how exactly does one go about over throwing the existing social order? Could you use the internet? Wait. Could I still use the internet? I was a wizard now, kinda, wizards fry technology…

"nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" That might not have been the best way to get some time alone to strategize but I wasn't completely sure how to survive without being able to get fan translated manga and more than slightly perverted fanfiction! I was busy enough panicking that I didn't notice Sam had come up the stairs behind me until she was shouting in my ear.

"What?! What's the matter?"

"internet…wizard, manga! Fanfiction…copyright violations!! YOUTUBE!" I'm not entirely sure that she understood what I was trying to say, and I know Dresden didn't. Both of them were just sort of staring at me like I'd lost my mind. Arthur wasn't much better, he was a stunned presence in the back of my head.

"Okay calm down. What is wrong?" Dresden was still totally confused but I could see it start to dawn on Sam.

"I'm NEVER going to get to finish Case Closed. Do you understand? 60 volumes. How many are out here? 24." This did not help the confusion.

"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" Ah, Sam figured it out. We both started babbling about our favorite things from the internet and Dresden looked alarmed. After about a minute he shook his head and went back up the stairs. I was too busy panicking to wonder where he was going.


	14. See? Thomas

Sometimes I wonder what I did to deserve this sort of thing. I had two hyperventilating teenagers sobbing on the steps to my lab. I wasn't even sure why. Fortunately for the remaining shreds of my sanity I had a plan. As I left the stairwell someone knocked on my door, I sighed and opened it to find my vampiric half-brother Thomas.

"Hi Harry." I did not have time for this.

"Hi Thomas, look, I'm a little busy right now so if you could come back later…"

"I suppose I could." He looked smug. That was a bad sign. "But I have someone you'd probably like to meet."

"Seriously a bad-" a thought struck me. "No, wait. Come in."

"And my friend?"

"Is she going to try and kill me?"

He rolled his eyes. "No. She is not going to try and kill you."

"Then sure." My initial plan had been to throw a bucket of cold water over the two of them. Thomas' arrival presented another way.

"Come on" I dragged him towards the stairs.

"Uh, Harry, why do you have hysterical girls in your lab?"

"It's a long story." I hoped this would work. "Hey girls. Thomas came to visit." Their heads snapped up. "See? Thomas." I pointed. It had the intended effect.

"COOL!" They started scrambling up the steps completely forgetting what ever their issue had been.

"Harry? Who are they?" Thomas looked nervous.

"No one special. Just two girls prophesied to keep the world from chaos and such. Or maybe lead it towards chaos. It's kind of hard to tell." By now they were talking non-stop about how cool he was that was the only part I could make out so I just stopped listening. "Anyway, whose this person I have to meet?"

Thomas shook himself. All the insanity of the past few days was worth it to see the look of utter confusion on his face. "Right. Well, with what you have going on you might not be interested in meeting her after all." he turned towards the door where the person he'd brought had been standing. "This is Davena." he gestured her forward.

She was obviously a white court vampire. Her gray eyes had silver flecks and her purple, black and blue, hair would have looked creepy on anyone else, on her they were lovely. Now I just had to figure out why my exiled brother had brought a member of the white court to meet me.

"Why would he be interested in meeting her in the first place?" Claire was instantly all business.

"I work as a diplomat for the white court. I have information on the movements of the red court that I am willing to pass on to the council."

That would have made any sane person suspicious. And apparently two insane people as well. "Why would you do something like that?" Sam was glaring at her.

"The news of late is disturbing. Apparently a duke of the red court was defeated by two human children. If they have become so weak there is no way for them to win this war, and I prefer to curry favor with the wining side."

The girls coughed. "That was actually us." Claire smiled as she spoke. "And we didn't so much defeat as bludgeon with pointy things until we found a way out." Davena was staring at them in disbelief, but she recovered herself fairly quickly.

"Well, the aid of a Knight of the Cross may well tip the balance in the councils favor. So I would still wish to pass on my information."

"We actually aren't planning to help the council. Which is just as well for you, since the way the council now stands you would immediately become a target for destruction. However, my colleague and I do not intend to simply let this war continue forever and _we_ would appreciate any information you could give us on the red court."

I have to say, Davena adjusted to bizarre circumstances much better than me. "Why not?" She grinned. "If Mr. Dresden does not mind perhaps we can all sit down

as I tell you what I know. I'm afraid it will be some time in the telling."

"Wonderful." Claire smiled as we sat down. She lay claim to my armchair settling into it with that boneless sprawl common to teenagers the world over. "So. My friend and I have only some knowledge of the current strategies of this war. If you would be so kind as to brief us on that to begin?"

Davena nodded and began a thorough briefing. She had apparently accepted that Claire was in charge of whatever group we represented. I couldn't really blame her, it was probably the ancient king advising her but Claire gave off an aura of authority.

Most of the briefing was actually new to me, not really such a surprise since I had only really followed the war where it touched on my life. The entire thing carried on late into the day and I called Charity to tell her the girls would be home late. When the briefing was over the sun had gone down and we all had a lot to think about. I drove the girls back to Michaels house in silence while we digested the information we'd been given. As we said good night I was struck by the fact that nothing had really interrupted my sleep schedule yet, and resolved to make that continue by heading home immediately.


	15. Arguing with the voices in my Head

I woke up to the whirring noise my brain makes when I'm worried about something. It sounds similar to a car digging itself deeper into mud and is about as helpful. I had a lot of planning to do today and that would require, you know, rational thought, when really all I wanted to do was curl up and panic for the first time since arriving in the Dresden-verse. Yesterday everything had caught up to me and I had realized that I was going to try and shape a new world order. I tried shouting it in my head like a power-crazed super-villain but it didn't help. NEW WORLD ORDER! Still not helping. Damn. I sighed and rolled over, I needed to think. What did we need to do today? Or more accurately what were our priorities today? Alright, first things first, I needed to know exactly what Sam and I were capable of accomplishing.

_"Arthur?" _

_"What?" _I felt a flash of irritation. He could follow my thoughts why would he have to ask 'what'. That he picked up on. _"If you want me to constantly eavesdrop on what you're thinking fine. Otherwise you will need to fill me in."_

_"Sorry." _Great. Now I felt bad. _"I was wondering what Sam and I can do. You seem pretty well informed about me at least and I was hoping you have an idea what Sam can do? Like does she have the ability to dissolve stuff into chaos or something?"_

The impression of a laugh. _"No. Her power is surprisingly ordered actually. She can speak things in and out of existence. Mostly things like fire or wind, things that don't have a set shape."_

_"Huh. So her prayers are a priority order to God then?"_

I felt Arthur wince and remembered that most people in his time were fanatically religious. _"Sorry."_

_"It's alright. That is basically true since it's the connection to Fidelacchius that allows her to use that power."_

Hm. That could be really useful, I filed it away with the other things I needed to consider while making plans. _"So, what about me then? I can make people believe I'm right?"_

_"Yes. Right now you don't have any conscious control over it so it just acts when _you_ truly believe you're right, also you can't affect non-humans as well because they don't think the same way. With practice you should be able to make anyone believe anything."_

I wanted to declare that I would never use the power to make people believe what wasn't true. I wanted to believe that I would never use it like that, but I knew that it would be a foolish promise, in the upcoming battle alone I would have to convince people that I was no threat despite any evidence to the contrary. I was surprised at how upset that made me.

_"I'll have to start practicing as soon as possible then." _My mental voice was a little flat. _"So, can Dresden teach me and Sam? Or do you have to?"_

I felt his approval at my distaste for deceiving people. _"Dresden can teach you the basics, like how to focus your will but I will probably have to help teach Samantha how to phrase things. If you are not careful the magic can behave much like a genie, any loophole will be exploited. As for you…I will have to teach you how to argue properly."_

_"I can already argue."_ I was actually proud of my ability to stick with a point come hell or high water.

_"True. However if you wish to _use _magic while you do so you need to be able to let the magic do the arguing. Your words become a vessel for the power, in theory with enough skill behind it you could speak gibberish while focusing on what you wanted your subject to believe and they would remember it as a carefully worded rational argument."_

Suddenly I didn't care that I was going to have to screw with peoples heads. This was the best super power ever! Totally worth lying to a couple of people.

Now, what next? Sam and I were pretty cool but we'd still need allies. We had, lets see, Harry, maybe Thomas, probably Michael and Murphy, information from Davena and…yeah. That was it. I allowed myself to think about what and who were on the councils side then stopped because I figured now was not a good time for a panic attack. We still hadn't talked to Captain Luccio, not that it was likely to make much difference, but maybe Ivy would help us. That would be good, since then we'd get Kincaid too. Oh, and we could write down our plans without worrying about the other side spying on us.

_"There is a good chance The Archive will join us. She remembers how the council was and should be"_

I cut him off _"Ivy will join us. The Archive remembers how the council was and should be."_

_"The distinction is not as clear as that."_

_"Then we should help separate it out. Shouldn't we?" _I was a little pissed now. _"As far as I am concerned the person who will make the choice to join our group or not is Ivy. The Archive is the spell she carries whose knowledge she can access."_

_"The knowledge isn't separate from the rest of her like that." _Arthur sounded exasperated.

_"There is no way she can think about all the written knowledge of humanity at once and stay sane."_

_"Fine. Whatever makes you feel better." _I wanted to strangle him. _"As I was saying. There is a good chance _Ivy _will join us. She has access to the memories of how the council was and should be and the way it is now is nothing like the way it should be."_

_"What? Killing teenagers who break laws they never heard of while trying to help their friends wasn't in the specs for the original council? Or was it the decades of persecution of teenagers who killed the person who A) should have been protecting them and B) was trying to kill them. Or maybe the deciding that certain people are bad because their mother, who they never met, was less than respectable?" _I was still unhappy with him about Ivy. That combined with my rage for the way the council had treated Harry and Molly was promising to turn into a truly epic rant that might have ended in foaming at the mouth and the need to kill something when Sam and her excellent sense of comedic timing fell off the bed. Nothing like a little laughing at your friends pain to calm you right down.

Anyway, that would be the plan for today then. We would make some calls and try and gather support for the fight. I made a mental note to talk to Sam about calling each other Chaos and Reason when talking with strange wizards and/or magical creatures, then followed the smell of frying bacon to a delicious breakfast Charity had cooked while I fought with the voices in my head.


	16. Reason does some reasoning

First things first I talked with Michael about what role he would play in the upcoming Conflict. I had started thinking of it in capital letters as a moral booster, it just felt more important. Michael confirmed that he would support us and confirmed that he had spoken to Sanya the other day. That made three of three Knights which was excellent and he agreed to drive me and Sam over to Dresden's after breakfast, or, in Sam's case lunch.

Dresden agreed to contact Captain Luccio and Ivy and they agreed to meet us at Macs pub. _So COOL! _Sam and I launched into a discussion of our favorite scenes there as Dresden drove us.

_"Sooo…Any suggestions on how to handle this? You know, without pissing off the lady with the sword and access to more people with swords?"_

_"Not particularly, every meeting is different. If you need help during the discussion I will help then. Otherwise I will let you figure it out." _Oh goody. No training wheels for me. That was okay, I could do this. Yep, I could totally do this, now if I could just convince myself of that.

Transition!

Mac's pub was exactly the way it had been described, from the thirteen columns designed to break up magical energy to the fans whirring on the low ceiling. Captain Luccio and Ivy were sitting towards the back and Kincaid was at the counter picking up their drinks. I took a deep breathe as I walked over but as soon as I sat down I felt the nervousness fading replaced by the same strange confidence I felt when I had argued with her before.

"Hi." Not the most creative of beginnings but I was in no hurry to come to the point of why we were here. I at least wanted to try the lemonade! The strategic half of my brain noted, after the fact, that I was in a better position if she started talking first.

"Am I correct in assuming that you have not reconsidered your position on helping the council?" I noted absently that she had decided to go the intimidation route, leaning forward with hard eyes.

"You'd be assuming correctly." I looked her straight in the eye, un-intimidated and determined to show it.

"Then there is no point to this meeting. I will not change my position and neither will you." She started to stand up. Probably thought I'd try and stop her and she'd get a chance to argue me round to her point. Too bad for her.

"You're right. I will not change my mind, and I would not ask you to betray people that you have served for ages for someone who didn't even live in this universe until recently." Sam looked startled and opened her mouth. I gestured her to silence and continued. "I would however like to talk with Ivy and offer her a place with us."

"What?! No! You can't talk with her." Luccio looked appalled, she must not have expected me to be able to see what an advantage Ivy would give to her side.

"If she wants to help us you can't stop her." Dresden was mad. He doesn't like the way Ivy is treated any more than I do and maybe less. "Ivy, it's up to you. Do you want to help us? Or even just talk?" He spoke the way you always talk to little kids without the edge of condescension most adults give.

"I-I would like to talk." Ivy looked a little confused. Only briefly though. It was probably one of the first times she got to decide what she wanted to do.

"Great." Dresden smiled at her. "Is there anything in particular that you'd like to talk about? Questions you have?"

"Why do you want my help?" I wouldn't have pegged that as her first question. Hm, why did we want her help?

"Because you are a good person, and every little bit will help us win this. And because we like you and don't think you're really happy right now. And-" I stopped talking as Arthur pushed lightly at the back of my head. "Uh. Hold on, the voices in my head want to talk to you." She gave me a funny look and nodded so I moved back and let Arthur take over with a quick reminder to use her name.

"Ivy." It was weird hearing my voice without speaking. "This will probably sound strange but I am the spirit of King Arthur and I'm helping Reason and Chaos accomplish their aims."

"That is correct. It does sound strange, strange enough that I am reluctant to believe without proof." She raised one eyebrow questioningly and I nodded to Sam.

"We don't have anything to prove it with us." Ivy opened her mouth to speak but Sam held up a hand. "However, I give my word as a Knight of the Cross that it has been proven. Amoracchius recognized him." Ivy closed her mouth and looked thoughtful.

"The word of the Knights has always been good." While she thought that over I thought to look for Luccio but I couldn't make my head move. _Oh. Um, Arthur could you look for Luccio?_ No sooner thought than done and we found her over at the counter talking quietly to Kincaid._ Thanks._ He didn't have time to respond before Ivy started talking again. "What did you want to say?"

"I wanted to apologize for the council." For the second time in this conversation I was caught off guard.

"What?" Thank God I wasn't the only one.

"I was involved in founding the original council. I wanted to apologize for their actions toward you. It was never our intention to form something that could not change with the times." He turned to Dresden. "You as well sir. The way the council treated you was…within the letter of the law, however, our intention was to create something that could hold the magical community to a fair and ethical standard and your treatment was in no way fair or even truly ethical." Everyone seemed a little stunned. "This is what I want to fix. With Reason's help I hope to create a new council that will be the way we originally intended. That is to say, flexible. At the very least we can create one that fits the current times, but we need your help Ivy. We can't do it without your strength and knowledge. So, please. Please help us."

"I…would like to help. I will do everything I can." You could almost see her accessing the oldest knowledge she had and seeing how the council had changed. "Let me get Kincaid and we can head to your base of operations."

Sam coughed "We actually haven't gotten that far yet." I sighed and took my body back from Arthur.

"Right now we are trying to figure out who's on our side and who's against us. We aren't making plans until we know what we can plan with and for." She nodded like that made sense. She's a very diplomatic child.

As she collected Kincaid I couldn't suppress the thought "Ivy has joined your party! Ding." I shook my head and we all headed out. Kincaid uh, "took care" of Luccio so we probably didn't need worry about her for a while.


	17. Squirt Guns

I breathed a sigh of relief as we exited the pub and nothing assaulted us. There had been a noticeable lack of assault since the girls had shown up. So very unfair, so very, very unfair. I barely had to think about working on an unusual case and all sorts of magical creatures decide to relocate my head somewhere far away from my body. They were planning to take out the council and people either decide to work with them or leave them alone. When they did get attacked they kicked ass on their way out the door. Speaking of which…

"Is the captain going to be okay?" I wasn't sure what Kincaid had done to her and I was concerned that it was fatal.

"Probably." Not one to waste words is he?

"Great. So," I turned to Claire. "Do we need to talk to anyone else today?"

"Yeah. We want to enlist Murphy." I winced at the thought of involving Murphy in this fight. Claire noticed. "Don't worry. She's badass, and thus she shall be fine." Kincaid was nodding. "Anyway, after talking with her Sam and I need to experiment with what we can do. And I want some sort of weapon." Her eyes unfocused. "Arthur says he'd prefer a sword but I'm good with anything."

"Actually I was wondering about your powers. Does Sam have anything other than the swords power?"

"Oh! Right, I talked to Arthur about that."

"Oh really. Were you planning to share what I could do with me?" Sam looked a little ticked off.

"No actually. I was planning to keep it a secret just to mess with you."

"Uh-huh" She was grinning now. "So, tell. What can I do?"

"You can speak things into existence."

"COOL!" Sam took a deep breath in preparation to speak God only knows what into existence.

"Wait, wait, wait." Claire clamped a hand over her mouth. "It's really hard. You can't just start talking."

"Owwww. Super strength now remember?"

"No. I didn't remember. Sorry."

"It's okay. But you could use your power right away right? Why can't I?"

"Because…it's hard to explain but, my power is simpler I guess. I don't create anything, and I only mess with peoples heads." Claire looked sort of uncomfortable. Come to think of it I was a little uncomfortable with her power, one of the laws of magic was to _not _mess with peoples heads.

"Anyway, how do we want to handle talking to Murphy?" She didn't wait for an answer. "Sam and I need to be there, but Ivy and Kincaid could go…somewhere else if they didn't want to come?"

"You really haven't decided on a base, have you?" Kincaid sounded about as appalled as he ever does.

"Please don't kill me?" Amazing. Kincaid could even intimidate Sam.

Claire gulped. "No…we didn't really think about it. We sort of thought that we could use Dresden's house but that's no good. And I don't think it would be safe to bring some of our allies to Michaels. Charity would kill us. And them."

Kincaid rolled his eyes. "How about this then? I'll take Luccio's car and find a hotel. Ivy can come with me or go with you."

"I will go with Mr. Dresden. I may be able to help explain things." Kincaid didn't look happy about it but he nodded, then pulled me over to the side.

"So. You do know Dresden that if anything happens to her I will kill you?"

Sarcasm muscles twitching. Must resist. "Yeah, yeah. I've heard it all before, mostly from you." Damn. Fortunately he just glared at me then walked off.

"If we are done mouthing off to the terrifying people could you maybe take us to see Murphy?" Patience is not a trait either of the girls posses. That could be a problem.

"She's working right now. Even if she's at her office-"

"We will ask very nicely and she will talk to us." Claire was delusional. I started to interrupt but she drove right over me. "And we will at least set up a meeting for when she isn't busy."

"Plus that'll give us a chance to see the inside of SI!" Sam clapped and she and Claire started a fangirl dance.

"Fine! I'll drive. Get in." Yeah, the whole fangirl thing? Getting seriously annoying.

"I win! I usually win!" Claire was apparently only sporadically uncomfortable with the power to control peoples thoughts. This is useful information.

While I drove Ivy talked with Claire and Arthur about ancient times.

We were lucky, as we pulled up to SI Murphy's car was just pulling out. I waved and she waved back before pulling over to the curb and rolling her window down.

"Is something wrong Dresden?"

I gave her the quick version of an explanation and she looked at me skeptically. "Look are you on your lunch break?" She nodded "Then can we come with you and talk wherever your planning to eat?"

She raised one eyebrow. "I was just gonna pick something up and go eat in the park. So sure. Meet you there?"

"That would be great." I said relieved. "Wait. Which park?"

"Down that way a bit and turn left you can't miss it." She said pointing.

Great. That meant I would probably find the only possible way to miss it. Which I did. We managed to find it eventually but it did make us arrive after Murphy.

"Get a little lost?" She was grinning.

"No. we just took the scenic route." I gathered what dignity I could as I replied. "Anyway this is Sam, Ivy and" I blinked. "Where'd Claire go?" Sam pointed at a stand that sold cheap little squirt guns. "Why…?" she came running back and threw one of them at Sam's head followed by a well aimed squirt.

"Hey!" Sam tried to return fire but Claire dodged and tossed another one at Ivy.

"What…?" I was still confused. So were Ivy and Murphy. Ivys confusion at least didn't last long.

"Hey!" Sam had gone after her in lieu of Claire who had gotten out of range. Then all three of them were off and running squirting each other and dodging.

"Okay…this is going to sound a little weird after seeing that but those girls are planning to challenge the council." I had really been planning on letting Claire explain this. I wondered why she'd run off like that.

"The council that you never tell me anything about?" I couldn't tell if Murphy believed me.

"Yeah, but we don't have many people on our side. So, if it's at all possible we'd like you to assist us."

She made a shocked face. "Amazing! Harry Dresden coming to me for help. I thought you preferred to wait until you were knee deep in trouble before allowing your friends to help."

I winced. "I deserved that."

"Yes you did." she looked at me severely. "But I am glad that you came to me for help, and I would be glad to give it."

"Great. Kincaid is getting a hotel room that we can use to plan in." She smiled when I mentioned Kincaid. "When we know more I'll tell you okay?"

"Sure. But…are you sure it's a good idea to put this much faith in those girls?" she looked dubious.

"Oh probably not." I jumped. Claire had somehow gotten behind us without either of us noticing. "but there really isn't much in the way of choice."

"It would be a lot easier to trust you if you didn't just run off when we have someone we're trying to recruit you know." I gave her my best angry look.

"Really? I just didn't want to make you worry about whether or not this was actually her choice." I blinked. I hadn't thought about that, but it was true that if she had been the one to talk to Murphy I would have worried that her powers had made Murphy agree to something she wouldn't normally.

"What? How would she convince me if you couldn't?" Murphy had the look she gets when something makes her uncomfortable.

"I have superpowers!" Claire's grin was just a little stiff. "I can convince anyone that I'm right."

"Oh. Thank you for not using them on me then." Murphy looked bemused, then shook her head. "Whatever. I'm here to help if you need it Harry, but for now I need to eat and get back to work."

"Right. Thanks for listening Murphy." Her willingness to help gave me a warm feeling. "I'll tell you when we actually start planning then." she nodded and walked off.

I turned to Claire. "So who do we talk to next?" She wasn't there anymore.

I looked around and saw her running away from a wet and angry Sam as Ivy provided cover fire. I sighed and shook my head, but settled in to wait for them to run out of energy. It looked like it might take a while.


	18. Chaos and Reason

I hid behind a tree to catch my breath. I wasn't exactly sure when Ivy had started helping Sam but it had made a big difference in how well I was doing. It didn't help that Arthur was just laughing his non-existent butt off. _C'mon man! This is serious!_ He just kept laughing. Just then I was ambushed by Ivy from behind. In retrospect I should have actually been hiding instead of sitting there shouting at the voices in my head. Then I realized that we'd spent nearly two hours chasing each other with squirt guns. That wasn't the best plan…Sam and I needed practice with our powers and everyone needed to have an actual plan. Still though, we were having fun. Sigh.

"Hey Ivy?" I poked my head up and was rewarded with a face full of water. "truce!" I put my hands up in a "T" shape. "I have a question." I waited to be sure I had her attention then continued. "do you have a way to contact Kincaid?"

"No…He will probably be waiting at Dresden's house. We've kept him waiting a long time haven't we?" she looked stunned confirming my theory that she hadn't realized that you can be smart and still act like a total idiot.

"Aww man. Your gonna tell me we have to go now aren't you? Just 'cause you were losing", Sam pouted.

"Let me put it this way. Do you _want _Kincaid pissed at you?" she paled and we all hurried over to Dresden and headed homewards-ish.

We got quite the surprise when we arrived though. Instead of Kincaid sitting in a car out front plotting our painful demise there were something like ten people milling around in front of Dresden's house. This was, as you might think, a cause for some alarm. Dresden stopped The Beatle a couple of blocks away.

"That's Carlos." I had to struggle to place the name as one of the few wardens that isn't a total idiot. "The Captain must have sent them." He started to turn The Beatle around, I frowned.

"Would she really send teenagers?" I pointed and Dresden did a double take. "I think we should talk to them. Dresden keep the car running." I stepped out and walked over.

"Hello." The entire group jumped about a foot. "May I ask what your doing here?" Carlos stepped forward, the de facto leader of the group.

"Why do you care? We want to talk to the person that lives here." He managed a fairly credible glare.

"Well, because we've been hanging out with said owner for a couple days now and aren't really interested in him "talking" to you." Sam had come up behind me and her voice dripped venom.

"The girls from the prophecy?" Carlos looked startled but nobody drew their sword, good thing considering that they out-numbered us and I didn't have one.

"Yeah. Now, again why are you here?" I tried to look prophesied but I don't think I pulled it off. Carlos took a deep breath then, of all things, he bowed.

"We are here to offer our aid in your upcoming conflict." I stared at him. This was great, impossible, but great!

"Why?" I shoved the giddy desire to do a happy dance down. It could be a trap, they could be spies.

"We are all agreed that the council is corrupted. It's not what we pledged our swords to, and we see a chance to make the world better." he straightened then grinned. "Besides, I'm not stupid enough to go up against Harry when he's fighting for something he believes in." I smiled too, I couldn't help it.

"Yeah, that's not a good idea. Well I won't lie, we need your help and we are still pretty understaffed. So-um-hold on."

_Arthur what exactly does one say in this situation?_

_Something along the lines of "I accept your oath, welcome to the team."_

"'K then Sam go tell Harry he can turn the Beatle off. And as for you guys, it's great to have you. We have an operative securing a place to strategize and are waiting for him to tell us where exactly that is." I stuck my hand out and Carlos shook it then smiled vaguely at the rest of the group.

"Wow, now we have fifteen people in our rebel force. Huzzah." Dresden sounded less than enthusiastic

"yeah but we're concentrated badassedness. Just add fighting." Carlos, Sam and I all spoke simultaneously. I continued "Plus Kincaid is probably worth twenty or so people all by himself."

"Whatever, lets just go inside. It'll be standing room only I'm afraid."

"Or we could all go to the hotel." Everyone but Ivy jumped. I believe I've mentioned that Kincaid is scary?

"Yeah that would work. Is there enough room?" Sam managed to answer him, I was still trying to un-swallow my tongue.

"I rented quite a bit of it. I will expect compensation when we are done with this fight."

"That shouldn't be a problem." Technically true. At least he wouldn't get a chance to do the killing if we failed…yay. "So, where is this hotel?"

"Follow me", he stalked back to the car.

"Okaay…who wants to ride with him?" The people-previously-known as wardens looked nervously at each other. "Who has a car?" a couple of them raised their hands. "Okay, go get them and follow him, Sam and I will ride with Dresden, who, once he knows where we're meeting will go pick up the rest of our group. Ivy, do you want to ride with us or Kincaid?"

"I will ride with Kincaid." I nodded. Then noticed that everyone was looking at me.

"So, lets move out." Everyone nodded and went to their various vehicles. The ride to the hotel was uneventful and slow, but provided a good chance to talk to Dresden about learning magic, or whatever it was we did.

Once we'd all gathered at the hotel, including the people Dresden had picked up, plus Molly who had smuggled herself into the car at Michaels house and Sanya who had shown up earlier today, I took the responsibility of briefing the new guys.

"Alright, this whole thing is a long story full of 'I think this is why but it might have been's, so I'm just going to do the best I can. Most of the people here are not familiar with the prophecy, but the gist of it is that everything goes all to hell Chaos and Reason show up and do stuff. Our role is not clearly defined, but neither of us is interested in anarchy and loads of dead people. We did consider aiding the council, but came to the conclusion that it was to weak and a faster and ultimately safer route would be to simply remove it from power and replace it with people we could trust. I know I don't have to justify our decision to anyone here since you wouldn't be here if you didn't think we were right or at least trust us. Still this is a major undertaking, and I want everyone to know that if we thought there was a hope of simply restoring the council as is we would do that." I took a deep breath. "As things stand now, you all have the training and power necessary to begin to plan an assault. In that respect Chaos and I are useless. Right now I have no control over my recently discovered abilities and Chaos has no access to hers."

I felt Arthur wince at that honesty. "However, neither of us is so incompetent that we can't at least get an idea of what we're capable of in a couple of weeks. That might seem short to you but we have help, even if I do not know how to use my power or fight, King Arthur is more than capable, and he assures me that both our abilities are very intuitive once we have been taught to access the power."

Carlos and his group stared at me. "I understand that some of you may find my claim to have King Arthur in my head unbelievable but, your friendly neighborhood Knights of The Cross can vouch for me", Michael nodded as heads turned to look at him and the room burst into excited chatter. I held up my hands for silence and received it almost instantly.

"Arthur is an invaluable asset to our side, especially since he has already begun to think about this fight. However I can't be in two places at once and would rather not try frankly, and my first priority is learning enough so that in the coming battle I will not be totally useless, and Arthur is needed for that, as well as teaching Chaos the same thing." I paused to confer with him. "He says, in a weeks time Chaos and I will be ready to join the planning parties in force, but I will be attending them periodically so that you don't have to brief us from scratch. Does everyone understand?" I was answered by a sea of nodding heads.

"Great, Chaos and I will begin our training immediately, I'll leave the decisions on when you wish to meet up to you, but send someone to inform me. Dresden, you come with me, if Chaos and I screw something up we'll need a wizard. " I walked out of the room quickly expecting someone to realize that I was just a teenager and question my leadership qualifications.


	19. Your Mom's a Spy

I just want everyone to know that I wrote all the poetry in my friends fic for my character, not my best work, but I did actually do them on the spur of the moment like my character was suppose to, cause I am just that cool.

Reason is the most amazing author ever!! Review and tell her how awesome she is or I'll keep the new chapters for myself and let you all wither away without them, or not.

I turned to Sam. "We have a lifetime of learning to pack into a week and we have no montage music. The only good news is that any plan involving surprise is already screwed." She grinned and loosened her sword.

"I love a challenge. Besides, all I have to do is learn how to create stuff with words and sword fighting, and you can get your training implanted into your brain." I nodded.

"Yep. It should work out, my basic plan is that I'll have Arthur give you what information you need to get started then we practice until something explodes. Then Dresden puts the fire out and we get some sleep. Somewhere in there one of us finds time to get a summary of the planning. Arthur will spar with you for training, and I'll just let him do my fighting." I still felt awkward being the one who came up with plans and expected them to be followed, but it came easier every time I did.

"Works for me, fighting first or magic?"

"I'd suggest magic", Dresden spoke up, "You probably already know that it gets harder and more explody when your tired and if I'm gonna be fixing the fires fewer is better."

"That's what we'll do then. First thing I want you to work on is a sword for me, the council is probably after us I want a weapon."

"Okay. You gonna tell me what I'm supposed to do or do I make it up as I go along?"

"Little bit of both actually. Now say hi to Arthur", I stepped back and let him take over

"Hi to Arthur." Sam likes to think she's funny. Which she is, but only sometimes.

"Hello Samantha", we were apparently going the formal route with this. "This will require finesse and eloquence on your part. Poetry is the most effective vehicle for your power so you will be coming up poems on the spot for any topic I throw at you. They shouldn't be much longer than a couplet. Ready? Knife, go." Sam stared at him blankly for a minute then spoke.

"A glimmering sheen/And quick to slice/Its Temper mean/A deadly vice" Nothing happened.

"Good, sunlight, go"

"Wait a second! Shouldn't I have made a knife appear or something?"

"To do that you simply need to concentrate on the object. Your poem captures it's essence but your imagination gives it substance, and I don't want you to try that today. You will keep composing poems until I judge you quick enough at it. We can begin sword practice while you do that if you like."

"Bu-bu-but, I'm already good at poetry! Ask Claire! And I can do it fast, and, and, I want to make things happen with my words!"

"I understand that you are skilled at poetry, however if you can not come up with the poem under pressure your talent is of no use to you." Sam opened her mouth to speak again but he cut her off, "And I refuse to believe that you have practiced creating poems quickly under stress. Also I am afraid that Claire has given you a somewhat distorted view of your power. While you can make solid objects appear it is very difficult, only worthwhile when you or a friend truly needs something, most times-and always during practice-you will create fire or wind, something insubstantial. That will allow you to make the best use of your ability."

"So what about that sword then?" I was agreeing with her fiercely from inside my head. _Arthur! We need a weapon! _

"If we can not obtain one by other means then you may create one."

"And I will practice fighting air while you look for one then?"

"Basically, yes. Except that it will be Dresden looking for it and you will be doing very specific exercises under my supervision." Sam looked about ready to tear his-my-um, our? Head off. She doesn't like people dissing her poetic ability, or getting the last word in. That tends to make arguing with her about as comfortable as banging your head into a brick wall. With spikes. Barbed spikes. Seriously, don't argue with her. Arthur continued, "Are you ready to begin? Your word is sunshine, and I want you to practice a couple different parries." He showed her the positions for each parry then looked over at Dresden. "Would you be so kind as to fetch me a sword? A broadsword would be preferable of course but anything will do." He was impatient that he'd had to ask Dresden to go, every kingly bone in his non-existent body believed that the man should have taken off as soon as he had hinted he needed a sword.

"Sure, don't blow anything up while I'm away." Dresden grinned and waved goodbye.

"Golden Glow/Shimmering Light/It melts the snow/And burns your Sight" Sam snapped the poem at Arthur. She and him were not going to get along. Sam has issues with authority. It's probably a chaos thing.

"Good, keep moving your word is ocean, go"

"It is not blue/it is not green/made of water/a color in between" She performed the moves with more violence than strictly necessary, that wasn't an anger thing though, just the way she is.

"In the order I taught you them number the parries. When I give a number perform that parry, Two, your word is leaf." She took only long enough for him to give two more numbers.

"Falling, Floating/Bug Eaten and Brown/It falls without a sound/a verb and a noun"

That went on for a while. I got a front row seat to some of the most impressive multi-tasking I have ever seen as Arthur continued to snap instructions at her, occasionally complimenting an especially clever poem, and managed to begin my instruction on arguing with magic. I was never going to have to lose an argument again! Well, I never really lost arguments before, I postponed them. And I don't sweat, I glow. Occasionally Arthur would stop talking to me and teach Sam a new set of exercises. This basic pattern continued until Dresden returned. He had somehow managed to find a sword. I suspected he had asked Kincaid but I didn't ask. Denial is a wonderful tool; it turns enemies into friends, and keeps you from owing scary demon guys favors. Yay, denial!

"Good. Now we can practice actually blocking blows." _Say thank you Arthur._"Thank you Dresden." I have to admit, I leapt at the chance to return the sort of thing he'd been doing to me for years. "Then I will continue giving you words, and we will begin a slow sort of match. Understood?" More glaring from Sam. I hoped she'd remember that I had to live in this body before she decided to kill him. I tuned them out for a while as they began the exercise, Sam rattling off poems for everything imaginable only occasionally fumbling for words while trying to block an unexpected blow. She's pretty quick on her mental feet. Finally before I had enough time to get to seriously bored it was my turn to practice.

"Okay then…" Sam had collapsed to the floor muttering something about "always knew he was a psychopath." I decided I'd practice on Dresden instead. "Sam's mom is a spy." I'd already convinced people of this, it would be a fairly easy argument to win.

"What? You're kidding right?"

"No. See, I go over to her house and her moms never home. And she goes on "business trips" all the time. But most importantly is the fact that Sam keeps nearly dying in a separate series of increasingly unlikely accidents. The only explanation for this is that her moms spy rivals keep trying to kill her. She may or may not be a spy in training, which would be why she misses so much school. Plus her mom is really quiet and kinda stealthy." Dresden had a considering look on his face.

"That makes a disturbing amount of sense."

"It makes more if you know her better."

"My mom is not a spy!" Sam had finally recovered enough to rejoin the conversation.

"That's exactly what you'd say if she was though! Since you couldn't let us find out about it because of the inherent dangers of knowing a spy's secret identity. And that's only if _you_ knew about it!" I really concentrated on my gift as I spoke.

"Yeah, I'm with Claire." Dresden sounded totally convinced and I did a little victory dance.

"The disturbing thing is I think I am too…"Sam was more reluctant but she believed me!"Why didn't you just do the cyborg argument though?"

"That one makes way too much sense."

"Wait. The cyborg argument?" Dresden looked very lost. I nodded at Sam to explain.

"We were wondering one day, if cyborgs are undead. We decided that it had to be a case by case thing, because if you were only mortally wounded but not quite dead you wouldn't be undead since you'd never been dead right? But if you'd died and the machine parts brought you back to life then you'd be undead, like Inspector Gadget."

There was a long pause, then Dresden spoke, "that actually does make a lot of sense." He then shook his head and blinked like he was trying to find how we'd decided to discuss cyborgs. You could see him decide he didn't want to know.

"Whatever. Sam, you can stay if you want but since I don't need you for my practice so you want to find out how the planning session is going?" I was anxious to practice and I didn't think I'd get far if we were going to reminisce over every slightly illogical argument I'd made. There had been a lot of them.

"Efficient." At that she left. I have decided that she gets some form of essential nutrient from random unnecessary remarks. The rest of my day passed uneventfully, I practiced arguing until I was exhausted, it happened much sooner than I thought it would. My consciousness eventually processed the fact that my body had been working hard too and I had to call it quits. Kincaid had gotten enough rooms for all of us at the hotel so Sam and I stayed there, although Michael went home.

The rest of the week continued in the same vein and towards the end I declared a break. Tomorrow we would all take a day off and just get some fresh air or read or something.

All the arguments used in this fic were based on actual arguments we have come up with. I am convinced that Cyborgs are mostly undead, and she thinks my mom is a spy. And both make a scary amount of sense, because of of the things she says about me and my mom are true...scary...


End file.
